Cellular wireless communications systems, for example, are designed to serve many access terminals distributed in a large geographic area by dividing the area into cells. At or near the center of each cell, an access point, also referred to as a base transceiver station, is located to serve access terminals (e.g., cellular telephones, laptops, PDAs) located in the cell. Each cell is often further divided into sectors by using multiple sectorized antennas. In each cell, an access point serves one or more sectors and communicates with multiple access terminals in its cell.
When connecting to a network, an access terminal selects an access point from a list of available access points that are known to be within communication range. The access terminal obtains the list of available access points from “neighbor list information” stored in its memory. In general, neighbor list information includes the set of radio channels (e.g., radio access technology, band classes, frequencies, and channel bandwidths) and other necessary information (such as timing offsets, coding information, details about the particular radio technology in that channel, search window size, etc.) to assist the access terminal in locating access points from which it can potentially receive radio services.
Neighbor list information is typically provided to the access terminal via (1) a preconfigured database programmed into the access terminal in a static way or (2) overhead signaling messages that are transmitted by some or all of the radio access points located within the general vicinity of the access terminal. These mechanisms for providing neighbor list information to an access terminal are generally implemented on static radio access networks in which the locations of radio access points are either permanently fixed or changed infrequently. Access points belonging to radio access networks that implement either of the above mechanisms for providing neighbor list information often operate across a single radio access technology.